Former friends of a pervert caught with child abuse videos turned up at court to voice their disgust as he was sentenced.
Arran Casey has become isolated after pals found out he had been looking at indecent images of children and was forced to leave his home after vandalism following previous media reports of the case.
Newcastle Crown Court heard police found hundreds of videos, some of the most serious type, which he had saved onto a cloud storage. Now the 21-year-old has been given a suspended prison sentence.
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As a result of information received, police went to his home in September last year. There was no illegal material on his devices but there were on his cloud storage account. He said he had been sent the images on a phone and stored them on the cloud and accessed then for sexual gratification.
There were 421 of the most serious, category A videos, 115 category B videos, 169 category C videos and one category C photograph. An example was given of a four-year-old girl being abused.
Casey, formerly of St George's Road, Cullercoats, North Tyneside, pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images, between November 2019 and September 2022. He was sentenced to six months suspended for 18 months and must sign the sex offenders register and be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.
Judge Robert Spragg said Casey's mother had been torn between her instincts to support him and her disgust at what he had done. He said: "There's utter disbelief that someone described as kind, polite and hardworking could do this, which your own mother described as heinous."
He added: "The effect on those depicted is incalculable and without people looking at it there would be no market for it."
The court heard Casey had been taking cocaine and ecstasy at the time. Mark Harrison, defending, said: "He has not sought to minimise or deflect blame away from himself. He is of hitherto good character and has fallen from grace in a spectacular manner.
"The impact on him has been significant. The accommodation where he was living with his sister was subject to vandalism after a report in the local press.
"He has not been able to live with his mum as she works for the local education authority and it's thought she would lose her job if she was over-supportive. That relationship has become extremely strained.
"Former good friends of his have attended court, not to offer support but to voice their understandable disgust at his behaviour. He has found the isolation caused by his offending to be very difficult indeed."
Mr Harrison said Casey is ashamed of his behaviour but said there is a good prospect of rehabilitation. He added: "He asks me to end my address with an apology. To the victims in these images, to his parents for the anguish he has put them through and to everyone else he has let down by his selfish behaviour."
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